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Keeping Track

Multiple medications with different dosing schedules present a challenge.

When all this began and I felt the worst, it was easy to remember my meds. My life revolved around doing whatever it took to get better, and that included a variety of prescriptions and otc supplements.

I tried some of those pill-sorter boxes, but they have some drawbacks:

some of them are harder to open than the pharmacy’s pill bottles

Sunday-through-Saturday isn’t how I want to divide up my week, and

those boxes are okay around the house, but not very convenient when you’re out and about

Instead, I typed up a list, taped it to the inside of a cupboard door, and found it very easy to mark off doses as I took them. For the most part it has been a good system. I’ve noticed though, that when I get to feeling almost normal, it’s easy to forget a dose. Or two. With the pill bottles and the list all hidden away in the cupboard, “out of sight, out of mind” rears its ugly head.

A couple weeks ago Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy had a post about a Pill Organizer. This one is different, so I wanted to get a closer look. I searched around four different stores until I found a place that had them in stock.

Every day has four compartments (morning/noon/evening/bedtime). The compartments are very easy to open. Those are good features, but what I really like is that it’s designed as a big tray with separate removable sections for every day.

The first thing I did was take a black sharpie and scribble out the Sun-Sat designations on the white tray. Then I removed all seven of the individual sections. My pill sorter has been rearranged and now runs on a Wednesday through Tuesday week. Admittedly weird, but it allows us to be gone for the weekend without having to juggle pills; I can just shove the entire thing in my travel bag and refill mid-week as usual after we return home.

The compartments aren’t huge, but I take two sulfasalazine, one horse pill (verapamil), one feldene, one plaquenil, and one folic acid every night after dinner, and all six of those pills fit. There probably wouldn’t be space for anything else, though!

If we’re going to be gone during the day, I can easily remove one day’s section and shove it into my pocket. I’ll be testing this feature out soon and will report back on how smoothly it goes.

***Disclosure
I bought my pill organizer with my own money
and
did not receive any compensation for expressing this opinion